Durkheim and After The Durkheimian Tradition, 1893-2020

Émile Durkheim’s major works are among the founding texts of the discipline of sociology, but his importance lies also in his immense legacy and subsequent influence upon others. 

In this book, Philip Smith examines not only Durkheim’s original ideas, but also reveals how he inspired more than a century of theoretical innovations, identifying the key paths, bridges, and dead ends – as well as the tensions and resolutions – in what has been a remarkably complex intellectual history.  Beginning with an overview of the key elements of Durkheim’s mature masterpieces, Smith also examines his lesser known essays, commentaries and lectures. He goes on to analyse his immediate influence on the Année Sociologique group, before tracing the international impact of Durkheim upon modern anthropology, sociology, and social and cultural theory. Smith shows that many leading social thinkers, from Marcel Mauss to Mary Douglas and Randall Collins, have been carriers for the multiple pathways mapped out in Durkheim’s original thought.

This book will be essential reading for any student or scholar seeking to understand this fundamental impact on areas ranging from social theory and anthropology to religious studies and beyond.

Philip Smith is Professor of Sociology at Yale University.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Durkheim’s Life and the Four Major Books
Situating Durkheim – early life and training - The Division of Labor - The Rules of Sociological Method – Suicide - the middle career phase - L'Année Sociologique - the Elementary Forms - death.

Chapter 2: Durkheim’s Other Works and the Contributions of His Students

The variety of outputs – individualism - socialism - ethics- the state – sex/gender/family/marriage- pragmatism –education - the body – punishment – classification – Mauss – Hertz – Hubert - other students in the Année team.

Chapter 3: Durkheimian Thought 1917-1950

France-the fate of Durkheim’s team - Mauss the gift and the body - Halbwachs and collective memory - Bataille and the Collège de Sociologie – England and structural functionalist anthropology – Radcliffe-Brown – Evans-Pritchard – the United States - Parsons - Merton.

Chapter 4: Through the Cultural Turn 1950-1985
Parsons and systems theory – the fall of Parsons – Germany – Lévi-Strauss – British anthropology - Mary Douglas – Durkheimian empirical sociology in the United States.

Chapter 5: Into the Twenty-First Century: Durkheim Revived

Durkheim neglected – the rise of cultural sociology in the United States – Jeffrey Alexander and the Strong Program – Randall Collins and interaction ritual – Other Durkheimian work in the United States – the Durkheimian Studies/Études Durkheimiennes Group - Germany – adaptations of Mary Douglas on grid/group – evolutionary psychology– the return of normative Durkheimian theory.

References